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Michelle Child - Notes of Barcelona Conference "The Proposed WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations: From the Rome Convention to Podcasting" - 21 June 2006
http://downontheriver.blogspot.com/2006/06/notes-of-wipo-barcelona-sem...

Report on the situation of fundamental rights in the EU in 2005
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2006/jun/EU-funrights-report05.pdf

European Commission opened an online public consultation on radio frequency identification (RFID)
http://www.rfidconsultation.eu/
Read also the consultation background paper
http://www.rfidconsultation.eu/docs/ficheiros/Your_voice_on_RFID.pdf

During a high-level panel discussion at CeBIT 2006 Mrs. Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, announced a new public debate on RFID, organised by the European Commission. Its purpose is to make an inventory of concerns that might necessitate legislative changes.

Mrs. Reding said that "These networks and devices will link everyday objects into an 'internet of things' that will greatly enhance economic prosperity and the quality of life. But as with any breakthrough, there is a possible downside - in this case, the implications of RFID for privacy".

The public debate will rely on a series of workshops addressing RFID applications, end-user issues, interoperability and standards & frequency spectrum requirements. These workshops will take place in Brussels between

The 6th edition of the French Big Brother Awards taking place in Paris on 3 February has chosen the following in the 5 different award sections, for causing the most damage to personal privacy.

The Orwell Award for State official - the winner was Jean-Michel Charpin, Directeur de l'Insee (INES) for his participation in the INES project (Electronically Secured National Identity card). By this project he created a direct link to the Ministry of Interior Affairs ignoring the separation between population statistics and police administration. The card will include two biometric identifyers on a RFID chip.

The section for enterprises was won by Lidl (at close range to Carrefour) for having installed 65 video cameras for the surveillance of 60 employees in a store. The company has had similar policies in other countries as well.

In a public opinion from 20 January 2006, Mr. Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor, was very critical about the wide access possibilities the European Commission wanted to give to the new Visa Information System. The Commission published its "Proposal for a Council Decision concerning access for consultation of the Visa Information System (VIS)" on 24 November 2005.

VIS will be a central database of all visa applications for most EU countries. The database will be connected to national systems that can be accessed by consulates and similar competent authorities within the Member States.

Mr. Hustinx thinks the Commission pays considerable attention to data protection, but he stresses that access must be granted only under specific circumstances, on a case-by-case basis and with strict safeguards.

As a side-event to the World Summit on the Information Society the Institute for Information Industry and AFACT organised a Forum on the Advancement of e-Trade & Ubiquitous Society in the Africa Hotel in Tunis.

Following the welcome address by Dr. FC Lin, Chairman of the Institute for Information Industry, and the opening remarks of Kenneth Lim, Ex-Chair AFACT, the morning session was dedicated to the advancement of a ubiquitous society and ICT for All. The afternoon session focussed on e-Trade Facilitation.

Njideka Ugwuegbu-Harry, Founder of the Youth for Technology Foundation presented the vision and activities of the Youth for Technology Foundation towards bridging the Digital Divide. Through cooperations with major international ICT companies the Foundation managed to benefit over 4.000

The US digital rights organisation EPIC organised a panel with a preview of their annual privacy and human rights report, with 7 panellists from all continents, from China to Argentina, and from Israel to the Arab Human Rights Watch. Speaker Alberto Escudero-Pascual from Sweden/Spain focussed on the RFID badges given to every participant. Some participants were given badges in which the mini-chip was included, others were given a cheaper add-on RFID-sticker on their badge. Escudero-Pascual briefly explained the results of his earlier research into the RFID badges handed out to participants in Geneva in 2003.

Though he said the mini-chip could probably not be read at any significant distance and the tags were probably only used at the entrance where everybody had to hold their tag against a reader to match the picture on

The sixth edition of Swiss Big Brother Awards ceremony was held in Zurich's Rote Fabrik on 29 October 2005. The Swiss jury received 100 nominations in four categories: government, business, workplace and the special life-time achievement award. The financial services branch of Swiss Post, Postfinance, was awarded the business award for the illegal transfer of bank transaction data to the United States. The transfer became apparent after a Swiss man tried to transfer an amount in US dollars to a Cuban travel agency based in Switzerland. Both bank accounts were registered in Zurich. Although the man assumed the transfer was purely domestic it turned out that Postfinance uses its US partner Western Union for all transactions in US dollars. The man was notified that the US Department of the Treasury had confiscated his money because of the US embargo against Cuba. Postfinance advised him to send a protest to the US authorities in order to get his money back. So much for the Swiss bank secrecy.

The September edition of the German industry magazine Die Bank contains renewed speculation about the introduction of spy-chips in the Euro banknotes. The article discusses three possible new measures against the counterfeiting of the notes; a new biological paint, a colour-switch foil and the introduction of RFIDs (Radio Frequency Identification Devices) on every note. The Hitachi Mu-chip, with its 0.18 micron size, is mentioned as a likely candidate, as reported earlier in EDRI-gram. Though the current price of approx. 7 eurocent per chip might be prohibitive, the article also mentions a new invention by Philips to integrate the chip in the paper completely.

The way the chip would work, is by storing a 38 digit number that cannot be changed later on, containing both the unique serial number and data